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Las Vacaciones

 

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  #1  
Old March 22, 2018, 09:35 PM
Donquick Donquick is offline
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Exclamation Las Vacaciones

Hi,

My daughter has to do a monologue for her exam. The title is set for her and it is about holidays (not too original, but plenty of scope). Her opening sentence is 'My favourite type of holiday is one with cold weather and lots of snow'. At the moment she has 'Mi tipo favorito de vacaciones es uno con clima frío y mucha nieve'. If holiday was a normal singular noun in Spanish, I would feel happy with this (apart from possibly 'favorita' instead of 'favorito', 'una' instead of 'uno' - and what about 'tipo' is there a 'tipa'?).

However, because vacacinones is always plural, how far reaching is the agreement with the noun. Should it be 'Mis tipos(as?) favoritas de vacaciones son unos (can't be because this means 'some' - does it have to become 'those' - 'esas' to agree with the plural noun?) con clima etc.'

As you can see i would appreciate a bit of help from a native speaker - she has the test on Monday, so it's pretty urgent - sorry and thanks.

Many thanks for your kind help.
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  #2  
Old March 23, 2018, 12:22 AM
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wrholt wrholt is offline
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It makes sense to wait for a native speaker to chime in, particularly if my analysis is incorrect.

I think you've been distracted by the difference in grammatical number between vacaciones and "holiday". Your concerns would be valid, if the word vacaciones were the subject of the sentence.

However, in my opinion, vacaciones is not the subject of the sentence. The word vacaciones is inside the prepositional phrase de vacaciones, which in turn is functioning as an adjective that modifies the masculine singular noun tipo, which is the head noun of the noun phrase mi tipo favorito de vacaciones. As the head noun, tipo controls gender and number agreement with the adjectives that modify it within the subject noun phrase, and it also controls the gender and number agreement with uno in the predicate es uno con clima frío y mucha nieve.

Last edited by wrholt; March 23, 2018 at 12:26 AM.
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Old March 23, 2018, 02:38 AM
Donquick Donquick is offline
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Hi and thanks,

Hm, i had thought about this but managed to persuade myself that the holiday was the subject and the 'type' was a qualifier of some kind, but based on your assessment, i feel you are right.

I guess if we had something like 'my favourite brand of chocolate' and the plural 'my favourite brands' then the 'brand' would be the subject and would determine which verb conjugation follows, as you say. It seems clearer with this example than with 'type' for some reason - probably just me.

Anyway, many thanks.
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Old March 25, 2018, 08:55 PM
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AngelicaDeAlquezar AngelicaDeAlquezar is offline
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I agree with Wrholt. "Mi tipo" is the subject of the sentence, even if the topic is the holidays.

The only possible plural expression would be "mis tipos favoritos de vacaciones", but then you would have to make a list of several kinds of holidays that you prefer rather than others.

"Mis tipas favoritas de vacaciones" makes no sense.
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